Ins and outs 2023/24 | Page 27 | Vital Football

Ins and outs 2023/24

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Teams could sign the 25-year-old international if they bid the stipulated amount.

VIKTOR Johansson has a release clause that will allow the Rotherham United goalkeeper to leave AESSEAL New York Stadium in the summer for a fee negotiated between him and the club when he penned his last deal.
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Tiser story seems to confirm existence of release clause - I had heard previously figures of £2.5-£3m but only rumour - which means we'll get much, much less than Viktor is worth.
What had me shaking my head was the point made that we will get significantly less than had we sold him in January! We have been here before. We may not have the money of many clubs but why so casually fritter away our assets?
 
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I get that it is galling when a player leaves for less than we think they are worth. But in fairness, what is the club to do? We signed Viktor as a virtual unknown on a fairly long contract. He had a year or so to go. What are our options:-

1. Offer him a new long deal on big money? We just haven’t got the money to offer him £20k a week and he isn’t going to sign for less without a release clause.

2. Let his contract run out. Then we lose him for nothing. As per Ogbene.

3. Sell him for a knockdown fee, with clubs knowing he is nearly out of contract so they get him cheap. As per Barlaser.

4. Do what we did - get him to sign a new contract on better money but with something to reassure him that he can leave if he does well.

To be honest I think the fourth option was the best for us and him, and I think the club did well to get there. But if we had fixed the buy out clause too high then Viktor, quite rightly, probably wouldn’t have signed it and we couldn’t force him to. It just wasn’t in our control. We couldn’t force a contract on him or anyone else. I think it’s harsh to be too critical.
 
CleanSweeper said:
I get that it is galling when a player leaves for less than we think they are worth. But in fairness, what is the club to do? We signed Viktor as a virtual unknown on a fairly long contract. He had a year or so to go. What are our options:-

1. Offer him a new long deal on big money? We just haven’t got the money to offer him £20k a week and he isn’t going to sign for less without a release clause.

2. Let his contract run out. Then we lose him for nothing. As per Ogbene.

3. Sell him for a knockdown fee, with clubs knowing he is nearly out of contract so they get him cheap. As per Barlaser.

4. Do what we did - get him to sign a new contract on better money but with something to reassure him that he can leave if he does well.

To be honest I think the fourth option was the best for us and him, and I think the club did well to get there. But if we had fixed the buy out clause too high then Viktor, quite rightly, probably wouldn’t have signed it and we couldn’t force him to. It just wasn’t in our control. We couldn’t force a contract on him or anyone else. I think it’s harsh to be too critical.
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Clean, I don't see my post as being critical about the release clause. I mentioned this weeks ago and it was obvious that it had simply formed part of the contract negotiations. My reference to 'shaking my head' had nothing at all to do with the release clause per se but to PD's assertion that we had the chance to sell Viktor for better money in January but didn't. If true then in my opinion as we were already virtually down and have an experienced replacement on the bench we should have cashed in.
I can only go on what I'm told which is that the release clause at a set figure comes into play in the event of relegation and that the club received an offer considerably in excess of that set figure in January but chose to keep Viktor presumably in the odd belief that we could escape relegation. I disagree with that decision and feel in isolation fair enough but it's not in isolation; it's another in a long chapter of RUFC failing to maximise value of assets.
 
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mikemiller said:
I think that RUFC probably believed (like the Chieo case) that we had a chance of staying up by keeping him... but those hopes quickly crumbled away , unfortunately, and little was done to strengthen the rest of the team.
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Mike, there seems a logical inconsistency to me in on the one hand rejecting a January bid for Viktor in the hope he might keep us up and activity (lack thereof) in the same window clearly indicative of an acceptance of L1 next season. Compare and contrast the Owls, QPR and other teams towards the bottom of the Championship.
 
Just dipping into the contract talks - I would imagine any players agent worth his/her salt would have a relegation clause in place in their clients contract.

I actually also think we did well to keep Viktor last season but I can also see, when I've taken my red-and-white coloured specs off, that it might have made good sense to sell him in January and let Dillon Phillips have a chance and see how he went.
 
Lindum said:
Clean, I don't see my post as being critical about the release clause. I mentioned this weeks ago and it was obvious that it had simply formed part of the contract negotiations. My reference to 'shaking my head' had nothing at all to do with the release clause per se but to PD's assertion that we had the chance to sell Viktor for better money in January but didn't. If true then in my opinion as we were already virtually down and have an experienced replacement on the bench we should have cashed in.
I can only go on what I'm told which is that the release clause at a set figure comes into play in the event of relegation and that the club received an offer considerably in excess of that set figure in January but chose to keep Viktor presumably in the odd belief that we could escape relegation. I disagree with that decision and feel in isolation fair enough but it's not in isolation; it's another in a long chapter of RUFC failing to maximise value of assets.
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Apologies that I misunderstood.

I don’t think we will get what Viktor is really worth but I don’t blame the club for that.

If we had a chance to sell him in January for me then we will get in the Summer, then I agree that looks like bad business. Nothing else about January suggested that we were really trying very hard to stop up.
 
Read on another forum the suggestion (apparently from the famous SITK) that Cam also has a release clause in his contract in the event of relegation. This may be wrong and even if correct the clause may not be exercised.
 
26/03/24

Paul Davies (Advertiser) Twiitter - Player ratings for the season , plus the expected news that Hall and Ferguson won't be kept on.

My comment - ratings are probably a bit on the generous side in some cases! Turned out to be the wrong decision to renew Hall and Ferguson contracts last summer. Good Championship players in their younger days, but wishful thinking by Matt Taylor (if it was his decision) didn't help us.
 
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mikemiller said:
26/03/24

Paul Davies (Advertiser) Twiitter - Player ratings for the season , plus the expected news that Hall and Ferguson won't be kept on.

My comment - ratings are probably a bit on the generous side in some cases! Turned out to be the wrong decision to renew Hall and Ferguson contracts last summer. Good Championship players in their younger days, but wishful thinking by Matt Taylor (if it was his decision) didn't help us.
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Mike, as you will remember several of us on here said bonkers at the time. Not rocket science. Taylor certainly gave the impression in a couple of articles that it was his idea. Hall and a few other old defenders were to provide stability (hahaha) while in another piece MT specifically said he was looking forward to having SF and Cafu working in tandem.
 
I have heard from an entirely unreliable source that things are not good at NYS. LR far from happy with facilities. Quite where the TS £2m upgrade to the training centre was spent I don't know but I've seen better in L2. Truth parodies fiction and my club resembles increasingly Open All Hours.
 
In the LR interview, it is also hinted that there are likely to be some changes in the backroom staff too. Nothing very specific mentioned though. I think that most Millers fans have not been impressed with recruitment and medical advice for at least a couple of years - maybe it relates to that?
 
mikemiller said:
In the LR interview, it is also hinted that there are likely to be some changes in the backroom staff too. Nothing very specific mentioned though. I think that most Millers fans have not been impressed with recruitment and medical advice for at least a couple of years - maybe it relates to that?
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A usually sensible poster (SITK?) on another forum suggested LR particularly unhappy with medical advice at the club.
Mike, as to your post #532 this announcement seems a bit odd. Hardly conducive to certain players putting a shift in or risking injury. Worrying stuff too on Haks, Cam and Ollie. I have revised my Millwall prediction to a defeat as I think the whole situation is now a fiasco. Will the last person to leave NYS please turn off the lights! :khat: :help::eek:
 
Lindum said:
I have heard from an entirely unreliable source that things are not good at NYS. LR far from happy with facilities. Quite where the TS £2m upgrade to the training centre was spent I don't know but I've seen better in L2. Truth parodies fiction and my club resembles increasingly Open All Hours.
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I can go 2 ways with this. I say, Get on with it. What more do you expect ?. They had nowt years ago. But, When you say, Seen better in L2. That gets me annoyed.
Anyway, Get them Boxing again !.
 
Well, what a pickle. On the one hand we have a manager who in strict ppg terms is probably the worst we've ever had but who is confident - sort of - he can sort things out. On the other hand the manager thinks he inherited a pile of poo, doesn't rate the training facilities, doesn't rate (perhaps) the medical support, doesn't fancy (apparently) many of the squad and has already decided the three players he brought in in January will leave - that said it's entirely possible that at least one made the decision to get out himself. With relegation release clauses like confetti and at least three other players anxious to find pastures new it's difficult to find reasons to be cheerful.
 
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